What exactly does a financial adviser do?
Do you have a good idea of what a financial adviser does? Some people think we are accountants, others think we are regular bankers or even stockbrokers. Well, I can start by saying that we are none of the above and here I will briefly outline what we actually do.
A financial adviser is quite simply a professional guide and planner for your finances. We take a broad view of your personal and financial circumstances, looking at your current position together with immediate and longer-term needs and goals. During an initial consultation, we try to get to know you, to understand your priorities and plans.
Once we have a clear idea of your intentions, we then move on to examine your existing finances, including assets, liabilities, income, expenditure and how much money should be held in reserve for unforeseen expenses. Protection planning will also be addressed – do you have sufficient life insurance to protect your family and is your income safeguarded against serious injury or illness?
We then consider how much should be set aside for long-term investment and retirement, whilst exploring the most suitable solutions for your circumstances. As part of this exercise we complete a questionnaire which helps determine your investment objectives and attitude to risk, allowing us to propose an appropriate investment strategy. This might focus on capital growth, wealth preservation, generating a regular income, or a combination of all three.
The final step is implementing the financial plan by completing application paperwork and arranging transfer of funds to the institution(s) responsible for managing your investments.
Beyond this initial advice we arrange regular updates and review meetings, providing ongoing service to ensure that our original recommendations are always aligned with, or where appropriate adapted to, changes in your circumstances.
This is a short summary of our advice process. Quite straightforward, right?
